Day 28 BRB

I will be gone on Wed and Thurs, so my project will be haulted and I'll do my last few after that.

Until then, an MS paint creation

Day 27, Another necklace.

Day 27 craft: Some stone beads on metal thingies and on a metal chain.

Day 26, Haircut

OOh. Does a haircut count as a craft? I think so. A DIY project anyway. Because I trimmed my own hair.

Here it is:

And here is what my trashcan looks like: :)

Day 25

I made a pouch. A crocheted pouch. I'm not really sure what for, but it's practice and it counts as a craft!! :)

Day 24, flower pin

Ooh la! I made a cute blue flower pin. With a smirnoff cap for the middle part.
It can go on a bag, or your sweater (though it's sorta big for a sweater) or as a snazzy corsage for your evening out in a cute dress... because nothing says classy like vodka bottlecaps.

Day 23, A top!

Whoosh. I finally made another lovely sewing project. This haulter top!

Day 22, more clay

I don't have an oven, but that doesn't deter me from making a clay duck.

I am going to try to sun bake it tomorrow. Because apparently that works?
Well, it will be an experiment.

And because my crafts have been sooooo lame lately, here's some other clay stuff I've made in the past:

A pink elephant

Alien Cossack

Yeah...it's a clay finger (the blood is gelatine and paint)

Adorable mousey

Day 21, Cuz I almost forgot

I spent the day reading and dealing with strange thoughts due to my bad sleeping habits. Or non sleeping.

So here is a face.

Day 20, weave come this far (har har)

I made this ridiculous little wire dinosaur alien today:

He sort of looks like Dino.
But that wasn't my craft. Today I made a bracelet from bamboo cord and beads. I was going to use nuts (the hardware piece), but realized this might actually be pretty and the nuts looked stupid. So I used beads. Oh yeah. And then I decided it should be an anklet instead. I mean, I don't wear anklets...but it just looks better on the ankle.

You'll notice something. I never use the traditional hemp string. Touching it makes me break out in hives. :) You needed to know...

Day 19, Quilting!

So, I only have about 11 days left of this, but here is what I've learned. Forcing yourself to craft everyday kinda sucks in a way, but it's good in another. It's forcing me to be creative again. Unfortunately it's making me painfully aware of how uncreative I've gotten. I spend more time trying to think of what to make than making it. So, I will probably never do these again. But I will try to keep up with crafting when this is done.

ALSO I need more crafting supplies!

Anyway, back to the challenge. Today I handstitched this and quilted a bit on it. I can't decide whether I'd like to turn it into a pillow or a wall hanging. Probably a pillow cover.

Day 18, The one ringgggg

Not THEE one ring. But one ring. By itself. Indeed!

I love the look of wire against natural stuff...such as stones or shells :)

Day 17, More crocheting

I am not quite a crochet master yet, but I am getting better. I made a cute little three petal flower for the hair. Admittedly, it would be ridiculous on a grown woman, but oh so cute on a kid! I hope that soon I'll be confident enough in my skills to take on something trickier.

Day 16, Post battle fashion?

Ooh just past the half-way mark!
I have tons of bullet shells. When my dad and brother used to go do target practice, I guess they kept the shells to ...uh...not litter? My best guess as I can't be bothered to ask why. But, I stole a few handfuls. And realized I have no idea what to do with them. Rifle shells are quite large. I figured maybe a piece of jewelry. I sat for a while, staring at it, and just decided to attach it to a bracelet. So I made a chained bamboo thread bracelet (I'm sure that's confusing. Chained as in crochet chains) and put the bullet on it. Slightly masculine. Might be a cool accessory if the band was thicker. But clearly I just got lazy. (Also, completely immersed in a book I'm reading!)

Here it is :)

Day 15, Sunglasses case

Yay, success!

I decided to take on an easy project today. This really cute, super simple sunglasses case. I cannot find a cute case for my gigantic sunglasses, so I made one to protect them from scratches.
It's lined with soft cotton and has 3 layers so it provides a little padding for my sunglasses.
Woohoo.

Day 14, Failed upcycling

So, today I wanted to use a bunch of my old CDs to make something cool. I though...maybe just a little statue that you could display something on. Easy, right?


No. Let me tell you...CDs suck to work with. I have no idea how to cut through them (so I just stomped on them) and then I had to sand them down to avoid sharp edges. No fun. I had the right glue, but then I ran out of it. As you can see on one of them, I had a glue mishap and just couldn't get it off. This looks horrible. I kind of want to throw it away so I don't have to look at it. It seemed like such a cool idea and turned into a disaster. Not all of these are glued on. I could probably make it prettier, but ugh. What a pain in the butt.

Day 13, One of THOSE days.

Day 13
ARGH. I wanted to do origami today. I succeeded in making an origami piano, but I wanted to make something playing it. I tried a bunch of different birds. Finally, after an hour of trying, I finally got this penguin.
He's sort of fat and wrinkly, but he's talented at piano and has a great personality. And look at his party hat! (It's a boat, but he has fun with it).

Day 12, Felt critter

Day 12!
So I had this brilliant idea. I had a bunch of felt and I thought I'd make a little felt monster coin purse. Well, the problem is, I totally didn't consider that change is heavy and will just fall through the slit I made. So, whatever, I made this little round felt thing. If I add a zipper closure then it'd work.

He sort of reminds me of one of those frozen PB&J pocket sandwiches. But maybe one that went bad or encountered toxic waste and came alive. He looks cheerful and friendly, though, so no threats there.

I made my first felt monster last year out of a pattern I came up with on my own. It was a gift for one of my best friends and I love how it came out.
It's the Creature from the Black Lagoon....ON ICE[skates]! He's adorable and charming. Look at his little skates. And yes, he did win the gold at the 2010 Olympics. You can't see his medal, but it has a maple leaf. Authentic, Canadian, and from 2010.

Day 11, Basket

Ah, a basket. A basket made out of soda can tabs (or pop can tabs, whatever you prefer). And yarn.
Holy cow, this was tedious and I am still not done.This is where I got to after a few hours. (Maybe having a hilarious conversation while making it made my efforts less efficient).

So, here is day 11's craft for my month long challenge. I think it's cool looking now, but I want to put a more finished edge on it. But it was just too much for one day. I think here are nearly 50 tabs in this thing so far :P

Raddish earrings

I made Luna Lovegood (from the Harry Potter series, for those of you visiting from another century) for one of my best friends for her birthday last year. Late to share, but oh well. Better late than never, right? I was so thrilled with how they turned out. And pleased with how thrilled she was!

Want to make a pair of your own?
The first step is to shape the earrings using oven bake polymer clay. Insert a long steel (or preferred metal) jewelry wire through the clay balls with a loop at the top end. Make sure it's securely placed. Bring the clay down at a point at the bottom edge of the ball (where there is no loop). Bake for about 10 minutes at low heat (about 250 F). The clay should be hard and unmaleable when it comes out. It is okay if it's a little bit burnt as these are going to be painted.
The next step is to add the white root at the bottom of the raddish. I used light cream embroidery thread and stuck it on with hot glue. It helps to make a tube of glue around where the root is attacked and bring it to a pointed shape. However, this can be difficult as the glue cools quickly and you don't want to burn yourself whilst shaping it.
Once the root is attached, paint the clay ball red and then attach a faux leaf to the jewelry loop. Finally, get some steel, silver, or gold earring hooks and attach it to the look. Viola! Radishes on your earlobes.

Day 10, GLITTTER

Day ten of my 30 day challenge!

I did a glitter picture.

Admittedly, I was at a complete loss for ideas on what to do today. I spent a lot of the day thinking about it. Then I saw all of my glitter glue and remembered these awesome glitter portraits I saw a few months ago (do a quick search and you'll find lots of awesome glitter portraits).
So, mine is just of my eye, and not all that amazing. It's not done with the same method because I didn't have loose glitter. I squished out my glitter glue on a palette and painted it on.

I did a little cheat. I edited the picture to make it so the shading was really simple and pixelated and printed out a black and white version. And I think it came out pretty cool for a first try.

I will do this again, but use cardstock instead of printer paper (as you can see, printer paper got wrinkly. And maybe try it with loose glitter.
PS, the soap that I made a few days ago is awesome. Really gentle exfoliation and smells really nice. The scent is perfect for summer. I will be making large bars of it when I restock my soap supplies!

Day 9, Rum Yum

Rum? Really?

Well, not rum, but even better! Rum ice cream! Yesssss...
But speaking of making rum, that is on my to-do list starting now.

Philadelphia (no egg) style ice cream. What a stunning summer treat.
It smells a lot like rum. Let's hope I didn't go overboard and make this a drunken ice cream that won't freeze. I cannot wait until this is out of the freezer and I can try it. yum yum.

I also made hazelnut mocha ice cream a few days ago! It, of course, got eaten within two days of making it :) Let's hope this is just as much of a success. Will update after a taste test. :)

Update July 13:

Yeah well, this ice cream has a bit too high of an alcohol content. It melts very fast. I took this picture a few seconds after taking it out of the freezer. And it doesn't taste much like rum (if I do this recipe again, I'm trying dark rum), but it does smell like it. It kind of just tastes like a vanilla ice cream with an alcohol aftertaste. 

Day 8 Soap

Day 8 of my month long challenge!

Today I made soap. Or rather, added some ingredients to soap because I used a plain melt and pour base. Making soap from scratch takes way longer than a day (needs to cure so that no trace of lye is left over) so obviously I couldn't do it for my day-to-day challenge. But maybe in the future I'll make a batch!

But, back to my soap. It's an exfoliating soap with sea salt, and baking soda. It smells divine (I used cinnamon leaf oil, lavender, and mint oils), is made with all natural ingredients (even colored with some mica!), and I put some moisturizing things in it also. I love the sea-foam color it came out (they're sorta bluish-greenish gray).
I can't wait to try it!

Day 7, Ring and bracelet

I decided to keep it super simple today. Mostly because it's insanely hot and I don't want to do much :P

But I made a cute matching set of a wire bracelet and ring. With hearts! Eeeee!

Day 6 Hairband

Day 6 of my month long challenge.

It might be an exaggeration to award myself the title of "World's Worst Crocheter," but I am definitely nowhere near skilled with it. I've attempted many crocheted items and they usually never get finished because halfway through I realize I did something wrong. Last time I made a scarf, one end was half the width of the other end and curling off to one side. It looked like a malformed piece of pasta.
Why am I rambling on about how much I suck at crocheting? Because today I didn't suck at it. Granted, I made something insanely simple and just made up a pattern because I can't follow a real one, but for once it turned into something I'm proud of!

Today I made a crocheted hairband :)

Day 5 Painted Chopsticks

Trying to get creative with random stuff I have in my house is not all that easy sometimes. I'm short on sewing and crafting supplies so I wanted to do something with some random found object today.

And what did I find? A pair of brand new chopsticks from a certain fast food Chinese restaurant.
I have seen awesome painted chopsticks before, but I didn't realize how small disposable chopsticks were. Painting these made me a little bit dizzy because I had to keep twirling them around. Actually, I think they came out pretty good.

So what does one do with genuine hand painted disposable chopsticks you ask? I don't know. Obviously not eat from them. If I put a clear coat they might make cute hair accessories. Oh just decorations. Stick them in a fake orchid arrangement?

Day 4 ICE CREAM

Did I mention that crafting includes food, to me? Well it does. But only desserts because those are optional and therefore something of an artform.

Today, on day 4 of my month long challenge, I made ice cream (I made sorbet earlier in the week, but not as part of the challenge).
 I think the flavor I made is something like hazelnut mocha.

This is a very experimental recipe. I'm sort of low on essential ingredients so I got creative. I found a recipe for Nutella philly-style icecream (that means egg free...I had no eggs!) but had to alter the ingredients because I didn't have many of them. In the end, I ended up using a lot of heavy cream, chocolate, and turkish coffee (because it was there). I only tasted the mixture after boiling everything together and it was awesome. Like a mocha latte, but creamy and thick. I can't wait until it's done setting up in the freezer. Hopefully it's a success. This picture is after going through the ice cream maker. It's sort of like a slightly melted softserve. I may have to chill my recipes a bit longer it seems because this one didn't want to freeze. I'm sure it doesn't help that it's about 75* F in the kitchen or more.

Update July 8. I tried this icecream this morning after allowing it to fully freeze and oh my goodness it's sooooo good. It's really creamy and delicious. Yum. Great recipe!

Day 3, Necklace

Ah, Day 3 of the month long challenge.

Today I was suffering from allergies so all I wanted to do was lay in a dark room. Of course, I didn't. I kept going outside because I thought maybe the pollen is just bad in the morning. Uh. No...it's bad all day. Everytime I went outside, I came back with my nose running. My nose is still running. My eyes were hurting. My head was hurting. But enough complaining. I did accomplish making something today.

I really like the look of layered necklaces, so I made one. Though I have no concept of jewelry design, it came out okay. Actually, I'll even go so far as to say it looks nice. I might even wear it. Or give it to a friend if they like it. The possibilities!

I would really like to make more jewelry. I think I'll do some searching for inspiration and you might see another piece at some point on this blog. Maybe within the month!

Day 2, Totebag

Day 2 of my month long challenge!

I realize I am going to have to go back to school at some point. Actually, this fall to be precise. So I made a cute bookbag/totebag out of pants, an old sheet, and some canvas I had laying around.
One would think making a totebag is relatively simple, but no. I can't allow that. I really wanted to make a cool design, but I really have no concept of how to sew the idea I had. So I ended up simplifying it. I still like how it came out, but I think I'll tweak it later on. I'm going to make a thicker/stronger strap also. I just got lazy and started running out of the other fabrics. Also, I think I'll add a little flap with a button closure. I'll post pictures later on if I add onto it, but here it is now!

Lemon Sorbet

Oh my goodness. So goooood.

We had a bucket of huge lemons from my aunt and uncle's lemon tree. They were starting to get soft and I didn't want to let them go to waste. So I came up with the brilliant (in my mind) idea to make lemon sorbet!
If you are a huge fan of lemon, like me, you will love this. It is so refreshing and absolutely delicious. And it's so simple!

(This isn't today's post for the month long challenge. That will come later. This is just an extra treat for a summer's day). 

What you'll need:

2 cups lemon juice
2 cups of water
2 cups of sugar (white or raw cane, no brown!)
Icecream maker

If your icecream maker has a freeze bowl, make sure it's fully frozen. You also might need ice and salt depending on your icecream maker.

Prepare simple syrup by combining 2 cups of water with 2 cups of sugar. Bring to a boil over medium heat and let cook about 15 minutes until the sugar dissolves and it reaches a very thin syrupy consistency. Allow it to cool and then put it in a container that you can stick in the fridge. It needs to be cold to make sorbet so allow it to chill for a few hours. I made mine the day before and let it stay in the fridge over night.

Next, combine 2 cups of lemon juice and 1&1/4 cups of the simple syrup in your icecream maker's bowl and follow directions to prepare icecream. After it reaches desired consistency, pop it in the freezer. Eat whenever you want!

If you don't have an icecream maker, not to worry.You can place the lemon and simple syrup mixture into any freezer-safe bowl and put it into the freezer and stirring with a fork every 30 minutes to keep the mixture from separating. It will be a slightly different consistency, but taste just as good.

Day 1, shorts!

Ah, it's summer! And to celebrate, I made a pair of shorts.

So, this is Day 1 of my month long challenge to create things. And what a way to kick it off?
These actually took two days to make (a total of about 6 hours sewing. Eesh). I made up the pattern myself and had to tweak it a lot to get them to actually fit and look the way I want them. But, I am quite proud of how they came out!

One of these days I'm going to have to learn how to make a pattern that I can just cut and sew. Or maybe get some pre-made patterns that actually fit me. Ah well. The effort was worth it! I've wanted a pair of shorts like this for soooo long.

A month of something or other

So, I am going to step away from instructional posts for a while because I really don't have people reading this blog it seems. But they will come back if I get requests and some more traffic. For now, I want to do a month long challenge (starting July 4 and ending August 3) to make crafts, sew, or do some art once a day.

I don't have a specific theme for this. It will just be whatever pops into my head that I think would be fun to make.

And I'm back

It's been a while.
Longer than a while.

But I want to start doing a craft blog again, and where better to continue?! So, hopefully I will keep it up this time. Life just gets sooo busy sometimes.

I attempted a 365 challenge last year, but didn't complete it. However, you can see what I did do here: http://yearofthepetal.blogspot.com/

That blog will not be updated anymore, but please check it out!